💀 Archers thread #132: The Grim Reaper joined the cast; The Bard of Ambridge breathed his last. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you think Shula will make an excellent vicar, or other unusual things.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed.

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to many of you for title suggestions. @JanglyBeads said that this thread had to be a Bert tribute so needed a rhyming title. From an excellent field, I chose the suggestion from @BorsetshireBanality (who also has a cracking username).

Check out the last thread for the other suggestions and various poetic offerings inspired by Bert Fry's passing. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4349822--Archers-thread-131-A-time-to-plant-a-time-to-reap-Discuss-The-Archers-here

So, who'll get the bungalow? Rex, Stella, Pip? If Rex has to move, will he doss down beside his pigs at Lower Loxley? Or will Rex be a resident at Her Majesty's pleasure, having bumped off Trevor for being the world's most boring man? Now Freddie's on the case, are Russ's days at LL numbered? Will we ever hear Jill again, or was Bert just the first of many older cast members to be dedded?

Over to you!

Bungalow - It would either be Pip/Toby, Jill/Leonard or Ben/Beth rent free, or Josh paying full rent on top of paying rental on the space his farm equipment takes up (although he could sub-let to Rex).

Or maybe Ruth/David move into the bungalow, Jill move back into Glebe cottage with Leonard after evicting the tenant, Pip/Toby given free run of Brookfield (in fact why not hand over all the farm shares to the golden child while your at it), Ben/Beth moving into Rickyard and Josh being turfed out to fend for himself, maybe he could doss down in his sleeping bag in an empty pen at Hollowtree.

What does Toby do all day now? I feel he’s been forgotten. Surely not just live on a couple of shifts at the pub.

I know it’s the same actor but he also sounds different? Just me?

He must have been furlough for months and months, too.

Just caught up with two episodes in one hit. Speaks volumes, I feel, that I had almost forgotten I'd not listened to Sunday's. Dearie me, what a load of old toot we're being served up with at the present.

I thought they'd changed the Toby actor at first. Now I think not. I suppose he must have been out of practice as it's so long since we last heard him.

Sharing a double bed for three years and remaining celibate. Yeah, right.

As for Justin, Lilian and Shula, all I can say is FFS. The sooner Justin is leapfrogged to the top of the cast cull list the better.

I don't think Shula would have any qualms about working on a Sunday as she is an Anglican, not a Wee Free. I should imagine the Stables does good business on a Sunday, which is yet another reason it's so ludicrous that she's training to become a vicar.

I do think she would have qualms about embarking on a same-sex relationship. The Rev Richard Coles and his husband, who died not long ago, were both Anglican vicars and were allowed to enter into a civil partnership and live together but it had to be a celibate relationship. Awful. Can't see Stella accepting that. The hairshirt aspect of it would probably appeal to Shula.

I’m a bit puzzled by everyone’s confident assertions of Toby’s celibacy. I thought he quite freely went on dates?

(Surely I didn’t miss a conversation?)

I meant that Toby and Pip are not having a sexual relationship. I didn't mean to imply that they were both totally celibate. Pip probably is through force of circumstances, but Toby almost certainly isn't.

Toby's complaint to the long-suffering Leonard was that he was forced to sleep in long pyjamas so that there was no chance of skin-to-skin contact with the woman whose bed he shares apart from occasional nights when he can stand it no longer and sleeps uncomfortably on the sofa.

And I think we can assume that Pip making the massive fuss that she did about his having the temerity to stay out overnight (but get back in the morning in time to wash, dress, feed and take her child to school -- I couldn't help wondering how Pip came not to know that he had done that: did she just walk out and abandon the toddler in the morning?) meant that it's not a frequent occurrence. That sounds pretty-much like him being enforcedly celibate to me.

I have tried very hard to find a single positive thing about Pip, and failed. This is just one more example of her being a truly horrible person. She doesn't want him herself, but she definitely doesn't want anyone else to have him.

^ I agree with that last para 100%, Asking! Does anybody like Pip?

wash, dress, feed and take her child to school
It is also his child.

@23minutesfromTulseHill

wash, dress, feed and take her child to school It is also his child.

My thoughts exactly

She not It.

Does anyone like Pip?

Her parents, grandmother and child love her; her brother likes being mean about their younger brother with her; does any one actually like her?

@23minutesfromTulseHill

wash, dress, feed and take her child to school It is also his child.

I think the point was that she must have known he was back and had done that.

I was impressed that the poor kid attends a nursery school - I don't remember this having been mentioned before - perhaps they should let Ian and Adam know where it is!

It was indeed, CMC. And whether the child is also his or not is not relevant in the sentence that I wrote unless we are trying to say it that child is not hers and is therefore entirely and solely his responsibility?

(I don't know many women who would not say "my daughter" about a child borne by them, rather than "our daughter" at all times -- particularly when setting out to pick a quarrel with the child's sire, which Pip definitely did on this occasion, going to Rickyard for the purpose.)

Oh. I took the 'her child' as indicating that cleaning, feeding and transporting the thing should really be Pip's job.

Thanks, MeOdistiPip, but I'll stick with 'it'.

I do think she would have qualms about embarking on a same-sex relationship ...The hairshirt aspect of it would probably appeal to Shula
Shula's whole raison d'etre is to have qualms around whatever she is doing or planning to do at any given time, so yes she would love the hairshirt aspect of it. Even better if Stella turned her down - even more for Shula to agonise over - "am I too old for Stella? Does my position as a future minister turn her off? Is it the cream cardigan that's a turn off? Oh dear, I must turn to my ex husband and seek his support yet again."

@ButtonSister, it's not cream it's ecru!

Shula's qualms = querulous delivery.

Very annoying.

And what have I missed about Shula's lesbian love affair?

I haven't paid much attention lately.

She's having a passionate affair with Stella

... and Stella is?

Stella is the replacement for Adam at Home Farm.

[quote ILoveShula]@ButtonSister, it's not cream it's ecru![/quote]
And that makes it sound better?

Better? You can't get better than perfect.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Stella is the replacement for Adam at Home Farm.

Ah yes, got it now. Thanks.